The Supreme Court has clarified that a second marriage is valid even if divorce proceedings of the first marriage are pending in court, provided that both parties from the first marriage have amicably parted and have decided not to contest the decision.

Interpreting the Hindu Marriage Act, justices S.A. Bobde and L. Nageswara Rao, however, said, “The dissolution of the marriage is complete once the court finalises the order, subject of course to appeal. In case of dissolution of marriage, a second marriage shall be lawful only after the dismissal of the appeal”.

The apex court’s judgment came on a plea wherein the second wife contested the marriage with her husband on the grounds that it took place before the appeal of his divorce was finalised.

The husband had appealed against his first divorce in the Delhi High Court. He, however, settled the dispute with his first wife and filed an application to withdraw his appeal on 28 November 2011. Before the court could formally rule on the plea, the man married for the second time on 6 December 2011.

With his other marriage too running into trouble, his second wife took him to court claiming that their marriage was null and void as it had taken place during the pendency of proceedings of his first divorce.

Ruling on the plea, the two-judge bench Friday said the man’s intent was clear from his application. “…After entering into a settlement (with the first wife), he (the husband) did not intend to contest the decree of divorce. His intention was made clear by the filing of the application for withdrawal. It cannot be said that he has to wait till a formal order is passed in the appeal, or otherwise his marriage dated 06.12.2011 shall be unlawful,” the court said.

Therefore, the court ruled, the appeal is deemed to have been withdrawn on 28 November 2011- the date he filed the application. It added that on 6 December 2011, the date of his second marriage, the first wife cannot be considered as a living spouse. Hence, Section 5 (i) is not attracted and the marriage between the second wife and the husband cannot be declared as void, the apex court said.

“The dissolution of the marriage is complete once the decree is made, subject of course to appeal. This court also decided that incapacity for the second marriage for a certain period of time does not have the effect of treating the former marriage as subsisting and the express ‘spouse’ would not include within its meaning the expression former spouse,” it said while relying on its 1978 judgment.

‘Hindu Marriage Act a social welfare legislation’

The apex court further said that the Hindu Marriage Act is a social welfare legislation and as such, it cannot interpret such as laws as though they were cast in stone. “The Hindu Marriage Act is a social welfare legislation and a beneficent legislation and it has to be interpreted in a manner which advances the object of the legislation. The Act intends to bring about social reforms. It is well known that this court cannot interpret a socially beneficial legislation on the basis as if the words therein are cast in stone,” Rao, who authored the judgement, said.

“It would thus appear that the law is already settled by this Court that a marriage contracted during a prescribed period will not be void because it was contracted under an incapacity. Obviously, this would have no bearing on the other conditions of a valid marriage,” the bench said.

“In any event, in the present case we are satisfied that the appellant’s marriage was not subsisting when he married again. He had filed an application for withdrawal of his appeal against the decree for dissolution and had done nothing to contradict his intention to accept the decree of dissolution,” Bobde said in a separate but concurring judgment.

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Most Consulted Family Law Advocates

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Advocate Nataraja Ks is a Shimoga based lawyer and has been practising law since 2004. He has been providing legal and advisory services as an independent lawyer. Advocate Nataraja Ks got enrolled with the Bar Council in the year 2004.
He holds extensive experience in working in the most complex areas of Family Law, Employment, Criminal Defence, Consumer Protection, General Legal and Traffic Violations. He holds experience in efficiently handling varied cases and often makes appearances across District Court Shimoga.
He avidly believes in achieving the objectives of his client with compassion and accurate advocacy. Advocate Nataraja Ks is known for providing timely and responsive legal services for his clients by providing them with the most expeditious legal course of action.

Advocate Achappa P. B has been practicing for over 14 years and have earned a great name for himself in the fraternity. His legal practice career has seen an exponential and tremendeous growth over all these years.
Achappa provides services in various fields of civil litigation, criminal laws, cheque bounce, family matters, consumer cases, landlord/tenant issues, revenue cases, matrimonial disputes and drafting and vetting of various agreements and documents.
Advocate Achappa enrolled with the Bar Council of Karnataka in 2003 and is a member of the Advocates Association of Bangalore.

Advocate Vedashree is competent, skilled and upcoming lawyer based out of Bangalore, Karnataka and has been a part of the legal fraternity for over 5 years. She completed her BA LLB from Bangalore University and LLM from Karnataka State Open University.
Vedashree legal services span from Civil Litigation, Criminal Defence, Family Law, Landlord-Tenant issues, Property dispute and Real Estate matters and Debts recovery matters and Consumer protection cases. Along with the above mentioned litigation areas, she is very well acquainted with research and drafting work and provides legal help in documentation and vetting of legal documents
Advocate Vedashree practices at the City Civil Court Bangalore. Apart from this, she also appears in various Family Courts across Bangalore. She got herself enrolled with the Bar council in 2012.

Advocate Chavva Siva Prasad Reddy has been practicing judiciously and serving the legal fraternity in High Court of Judicature at Hyderabad and District Court of Kadapa for more than 18 years.
He is professionally dealing with cases in the field of law pertaining to Civil Litigation, Criminal Laws, Family Laws and drafting and vetting of various agreements and documents. He also provides consultation on a wide variety of legal issues.
Advocate Chavva Siva Prasad Reddy focuses on comprehending the needs of the client and providing with efficient quality work and legal information. He believes that a proper legal advice to a client and litigant can be given after considering the entire matter. He is consistent and precise in identifying strength and weakness of the matter. His analytical, logical and client-friendly approach makes him a well-founded advocate for assistance.

Advocate Iqbal Ashraf Rahmani is an intellectual, skilled and an renowned lawyer based out of Delhi and has been a part of the legal fraternity for over 20 years. He possesses excellent arguing abilities and research skills.
He primarily handles matters related to Cheque bounce, Civil & Criminal, Family matters, Revenue and Consumer protection matters. Being an excellent researcher, he also offers his services in Documentation and drafting of legal agreements.
Iqbal practices at the Hon'ble Delhi High Court and Supreme Court, he also practices in Debt Recovery Tribunals, National Green Tribunals, Consumer Forum Delhi and NCDRC. He got himself enrolled with the bar in the year 1997.

Advocate Debanan Das is a talented, skilled and upcoming young lawyer. After completing his Law from Haldia Law College in 2013, he started practicing independently and has been successfully growing it since then.
Das primarily deals with matters related to Child Custody issues and Family Law matters. He also handles Divorce & Alimony matters as well as Property disputes other than drafting various legal agreements for his clientele.
Advocate Debanan practices at the Hon'ble Calcutta High Court along with District Court of Calcutta and also the Civil Court. He got himself enrolled with the Bar Council in the year 2015.

Top Consulted Family Law Advocates

Advocate Nataraja Ks is a Shimoga based lawyer and has been practising law since 2004. He has been providing legal and advisory services as an independent lawyer. Advocate Nataraja Ks got enrolled with the Bar Council in the year 2004.
He holds extensive experience in working in the most complex areas of Family Law, Employment, Criminal Defence, Consumer Protection, General Legal and Traffic Violations. He holds experience in efficiently handling varied cases and often makes appearances across District Court Shimoga.
He avidly believes in achieving the objectives of his client with compassion and accurate advocacy. Advocate Nataraja Ks is known for providing timely and responsive legal services for his clients by providing them with the most expeditious legal course of action.

Advocate Achappa P. B has been practicing for over 14 years and have earned a great name for himself in the fraternity. His legal practice career has seen an exponential and tremendeous growth over all these years.
Achappa provides services in various fields of civil litigation, criminal laws, cheque bounce, family matters, consumer cases, landlord/tenant issues, revenue cases, matrimonial disputes and drafting and vetting of various agreements and documents.
Advocate Achappa enrolled with the Bar Council of Karnataka in 2003 and is a member of the Advocates Association of Bangalore.

Advocate Vedashree is competent, skilled and upcoming lawyer based out of Bangalore, Karnataka and has been a part of the legal fraternity for over 5 years. She completed her BA LLB from Bangalore University and LLM from Karnataka State Open University.
Vedashree legal services span from Civil Litigation, Criminal Defence, Family Law, Landlord-Tenant issues, Property dispute and Real Estate matters and Debts recovery matters and Consumer protection cases. Along with the above mentioned litigation areas, she is very well acquainted with research and drafting work and provides legal help in documentation and vetting of legal documents
Advocate Vedashree practices at the City Civil Court Bangalore. Apart from this, she also appears in various Family Courts across Bangalore. She got herself enrolled with the Bar council in 2012.

Advocate Chavva Siva Prasad Reddy has been practicing judiciously and serving the legal fraternity in High Court of Judicature at Hyderabad and District Court of Kadapa for more than 18 years.
He is professionally dealing with cases in the field of law pertaining to Civil Litigation, Criminal Laws, Family Laws and drafting and vetting of various agreements and documents. He also provides consultation on a wide variety of legal issues.
Advocate Chavva Siva Prasad Reddy focuses on comprehending the needs of the client and providing with efficient quality work and legal information. He believes that a proper legal advice to a client and litigant can be given after considering the entire matter. He is consistent and precise in identifying strength and weakness of the matter. His analytical, logical and client-friendly approach makes him a well-founded advocate for assistance.

Advocate Iqbal Ashraf Rahmani is an intellectual, skilled and an renowned lawyer based out of Delhi and has been a part of the legal fraternity for over 20 years. He possesses excellent arguing abilities and research skills.
He primarily handles matters related to Cheque bounce, Civil & Criminal, Family matters, Revenue and Consumer protection matters. Being an excellent researcher, he also offers his services in Documentation and drafting of legal agreements.
Iqbal practices at the Hon'ble Delhi High Court and Supreme Court, he also practices in Debt Recovery Tribunals, National Green Tribunals, Consumer Forum Delhi and NCDRC. He got himself enrolled with the bar in the year 1997.

Advocate Debanan Das is a talented, skilled and upcoming young lawyer. After completing his Law from Haldia Law College in 2013, he started practicing independently and has been successfully growing it since then.
Das primarily deals with matters related to Child Custody issues and Family Law matters. He also handles Divorce & Alimony matters as well as Property disputes other than drafting various legal agreements for his clientele.
Advocate Debanan practices at the Hon'ble Calcutta High Court along with District Court of Calcutta and also the Civil Court. He got himself enrolled with the Bar Council in the year 2015.

Top Legal Family Law Queries

We had partition of our house property in 1989 and brother (A) family are in possession of the house property allotted to A in partition in 1989 with seperate gate. Son(A) died on 22nd feb 2005 & mother(C) had inherited share in predeceased son property with A’s widow & two children & according to my understanding mother’s share in son A’s property will be 1/4. Mother died on 20 jan.2007. she did not file petition for possession & partition during her life time against brother(A).I(B) am one of the legal heirs of mother & brother(B) can claim share in brother(A) property since mother(C) had died & brother (B) being mother’s (C) successor.When statutary provision of 12 years time of adverse posession against me(B) would run out to claim mother(C) inherited share in predecesed son(A)property.
Sir, my question is what will be the starting date of adverse possession against me(B). Will it be from the date my brother(A) died or from the date my mother(C) died. Will the 12 year period be counted from my brother’s(A) death or from the date of mother’s (C) death. Kindly provide citations, without citation my problem will not be solved.
Parvathy Thilagam vs Rengasamy Nadar(Died) on 23 August, 2016 in which “Chinnammal till her death on 16.01.1985 and thereby they prescribed title adverse possession. Chinnammal lost her right in the property.”
C would have lost her right in A’s property if C did not file partition suit within 12 years from A’s death and B would have inherited nothing. My question also is why B will get fresh start of 12 years limitation since B had inherited 12 years limitation period only from C. C was first successor to A’s property and B is second successor to A’s property after death of C. I need citation for it.

My Father had a property in Ranchi, Jharkhand in his name. He is no more. Now I want to transfer property ownership to my name.
we were a family of 6
Father- Died ;
Mother- Died;
Sister 1- Married her husband(dead) she is staying with her children in their own home;
Sister 2- (Died) Unmarried;
Sister 3- (Died) ,Married;
Sister 4- (Divorced) alive;
the property was bought by my father only.
No will was made by the father when he was alive.
Question:
What is the share of my sister who is divorced when father was alive, one sister is Widow.
What is the status of his only son in this instance?
Father expired in 1993. How to proceed with transferring the house; land property in a legal way.

We have some land in Pune. We are 3 brothers and decided to build a construction. My two brothers invested in the property and I'm unable to invest. I promised them to pay from the income of building. Now they received money by construction and not giving me any kind of share in property and perk. Now, what can I do in this situation?

My mother passed away 20 years back, and property with sale-deed is her name, my father is mutated this property in his+ 4 children from 1st wife and my father also died 2 years back.
Since My father re married and his second wife (Step-mother occupied our house and refused to share any property )she also added her name in property by submiting legalheir certificate.
What rights does step mother have in my mothers property? (sale deed is still till today in the name of my mother name,) She is claiming my mothers property. We are Hindus.
My query:
01.Since house is constructed by son of first wife, Is step- mother can claim of my mother property???
02.What legal process for claim of our share or vacate her ,Can we go to high court for an partition suit of above property?.
We would need good lawyer to look into this issue.

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